KAYSVILLE—For Kaysville Police Officer Lacy Turner, being in law enforcement means more than just showing up for work, then going home. She goes the extra mile in everything she does. That’s why the Utah Peace Officers Association chose her as Officer of the Year.

“Through her outreach efforts and community policing initiatives, she has exposed countless members of our communities to positive stories of police service,” said Kaysville Police Chief Sol Oberg, who nominated Turner for the award. “This year, she has contributed significantly to the positive image that law enforcement needs in order to build and maintain trust with our community members. This has come at a particularly crucial time for law enforcement.”

Turner is a patrol officer, but she is also assigned to the Problem-Oriented Policing Unit (POP) and works extra hours as a school resource officer at Kaysville Junior High School. In addition, she is a DARE instructor and field-training officer.

“This past year, she proposed and implemented three new programs within our department,” said Oberg. “A peer support program, a mentoring program for officers and a youth citizen’s academy. The first two programs have had a tremendous effect on the well-being, success and morale of our officers.”

“Given the things we see, the peer support program helps officers not to be scared to say, ‘wow that was a tough call,’” said Turner. “It lets them know it’s OK. People try to hide it.”

Oberg said the youth citizen’s academy program is designed to create a bond between officers and the community’s youth. It will start in the summer.

As part of her efforts with youth, Turner and a fellow officer instigated the “Cops Love Lemonade Stands” program.

“We encouraged people to call us when their kids had a lemonade stand,” she said. “Then we would go by and hang out with them and take pictures. It wasn’t always just lemonade either. Sometimes you’d see officers playing at the park or shooting a basketball with kids. It definitely helped with community engagement for sure.”

Turner said one of the first stands they visited was after the attack on officers in Texas. “The girl was raising money for the fallen officers,” she said. “It was cool to see she was so selfless. Then her mom reached ouy to us and invited us to her birthday party. We surprised her and she said that was the highlight of the party. It’s nice to see the positive impact and be part of it.”

The Kaysville Mayor has called her “the face” of the department for her outreach efforts with various community groups, Oberg said. She has been with the department for three years and has received multiple commendations and awards from the department and community groups for her initiative and actions in instances such as emergency medical calls and other high profile emergency calls.

Oberg said her service doesn’t stop with police work either. On New Year’s Day she started shoveling the driveways of some elderly residents in the city. Her act of kindness may have gone unnoticed except someone caught her good deeds on camera and sent it to a local TV station.

Going unnoticed is how Turner likes it though. “I had no idea the chief put me in for the award,” she said. “I didn’t know about it until I got the phone call. Every one of our officers could have received the award. I don’t know why I stood out.”